In a recent thread on an enterprise resource planning(ERP) discussion group this topic was brought up as an area of concern. If the baby boomers are retiring in droves, and taking critical business knowledge with them, what will happen? A few folks chimed in with supporting concern, but I think this is another point that supports part of a larger, positive, and inevitable shift in business software.

One person mentioned that ERP capabilities are like NASCAR, in that the ERP performance can exceed the driver's capabilities, and you need both good drivers and good ERP systems to win the race. I agree and disagree.

I agree that ERP performance is a lot like NASCAR. It can exceed the driver capability, and the technology platforms and restrictions are decades old with very little motivation to change, since it brings in the money. This discussion about baby boomers retiring is also interesting, as the next Gen-Y and millennial users are going to help accelerate the necessity of user-centric business software, ERP included.

I don't think the lack of expertise of the users should ever have been the issue to begin with. This should only be a problem if you have limited system capabilities. The real problem seems to be the lack of experience with the actual business problems of the software companies/developers themselves, and as a result they cannot address or fix issues they are blind to.

I don't know of another area in software where satisfaction ratings are as high for such a low percentage of expected functionality, and investments are as high. As the boomers retire, and as vertical dis-integration continues rapidly (esp in manufacturing), we are no longer talking about NASCAR and professional drivers (thank goodness) the attention will begin to shift to focus on everyday people, and everyday passenger cars if we are maintaining the analogy.

It's easy to argue that the value of everyday people driving everyday cars greatly exceeds that of pro drivers being able to drive NASCARs. Likewise the shift to many more and smaller companies will unlock huge value for their customers, and the economy. To realize the full potential, the focus needs to be on understanding that user-centric software for business is coming, and the next generation is going to *require* it. Less map-like more GPS-like, no manuals or training all walkthrough and "in-game" learning, and dumping the desktop/tethering.

I've been told my opinions on ERP are "simplistic" and can't work, which is interesting because that means I've been failing for the last 8 years in my manufacturing business, without even knowing it, using these ideas.